In the Spot-Light
by Juniper Night
Summary: Alya decided that the only thing cooler than chasing Ladybug across Paris while she saved the day was chasing her friend Marinette across Paris while she saved the day. Not a reveal fic.


Alya hadn't realized how small the bakery was until it was filled by a seven-foot-tall squash monster.

Alya pressed her phone to the glass of the pastry case she was crouching behind and began livestreaming. From between croissants, the Squash Monster scanned the room. It didn't see anyone, but the camera did; all the visitors to the bakery were cowering behind display tables, like Alya herself. Marinette made a distressed noise next to her, and Alya whispered, "Don't worry girl, any moment now Ladybug's gonna show up!"

In the next instant, there was the crash of glass shattering. It was not the sound of Ladybug bursting through a window to save the day; it was the sound of the Squash Monster bringing its giant broccoli club down on a perfectly good case of fudge.

"EAT YOUR VEGGIES!" the Squash Monster bellowed. It brought down its broccoli club on a second display, and this time there were screams: Mrs. Dupain Cheng and two customers had been hiding there.

Marinette's mom raised her arms to shield herself, and the Squash Monster prepared to do… whatever it was going to do with that carrot, when someone threw a textbook at the akuma monster.

"NO!"

Her camera followed the trajectory of the textbook to find… Marinette?

She was standing now, towering from Alya's crouched perspective.

"Stay away from my mother!"

"BRATTY CHILDREN!" said the Squash Monster. Almost faster than her phone camera could capture, the Squash Monster had launched its carrots at Marinette. They whistled through the air like shuriken, but Marinette dodged—left, right, down! – and the carrots planted themselves in the wall.

Marinette's hands scrabbled on the counter behind her for something to defend herself with as the shadow of the Squash Monster grew menacingly over her. Finding a power cord, she ripped the plug from the outlet and swung. Alya swung her camera with it.

The blender smacked the side of Squash Monster's face – and slammed them into the wall. In a heartbeat Marinette had vaulted over the counter and dashed past the akuma.

"Catch me if you can!" she called over her shoulder as she sprinted out the door and rounded the corner.

The Squash Monster groaned, got to its feet, and _roared_ so loud the glass shook before it too ran out the bakery door and after Marinette.

"Marinette!"

))o((

The sound of feet pounding on pavement. The sight of cobblestone rushing unevenly past.

"Ladybug!"

Said superheroine appeared on the screen, along with a recently purified little butterfly.

"Ladybug, have you seen-"

"Sorry! No time for questions, gotta bug out!"

))o((

"Marinette! Marinette, where are you?"

" _She's really worried Tikki! I need to get back."_

" _Wait!" said the Kwami. She pulled one of Marinette's pigtails out, messed with her hair a second, and smeared a bit of dirt on Marinette's face. "Okay, go!"_

))o((

"Alya!"

The camera did an abrupt 180, and a face appeared in the Paris landscape, peering around the edge of a building.

"Is it safe?"

"Marinette! There you are."

The scene went out of a control for a moment while Alya tackled her best friend, then the lens refocused on Marinette's face.

"Paris wants to know – how did you _do_ that!?"

Modest Marinette made an appearance then, and gave a nervous laugh. "All I did was throw a blender at it," Marinette said. She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, accidentally ruffling her hair even more. It was clear on camera that she was a nervous wreck. "I mean, it's not like I went up to the monster and slugged it or gave a roundhouse kick or- eep!"

Marinette made the mistake of pantomiming while she spoke and faster than you could say "catastrophe" she was off screen and flat on her back.

Alya's hand reached out to help her back up. "That's not what matters! Girl, you were seriously brave!"

Marinette's hands flew to her mouth. "I didn't feel brave; I felt terrified," she confessed.

"What if that thing had hurt my mother? What if Ladybug and Chat Noir didn't show up in time, or something bad happened and Ladybug couldn't fix it? I had to do something." Marinette reached out unsteadily for the wall and leaned heavily on it. "I don't think I could do it again though," she said, staring dazedly at the ground. "I'm not sure how Ladybug does it every week."

"Yeah, she's pretty amazing."

Marinette looked straight at the camera suddenly and frowned. "Alya!" she said, covering her face. "Can you stop recording me?"

"Oh! Right, sorry." Alya appeared back on screen. "Until next time, Paris! Ladyblog, out."

))o((

Marinette let out a little sigh of relief as yet another classmate walked away after telling her how brave she'd been and how cool they thought she was.

What she'd told Alya had been a half-truth. She had been terrified, but not of the akuma – of the interview.

Of this.

So far, no one _seemed_ suspicious. She'd gotten a lot of acting experience over the last year and a half of lies and extemporaneous excuses, and she'd tried to really play up the good-ol' Marinette insecurity and clumsiness on screen, but her classmates had focused on the action-packed part of the video.

Well, most of them anyway.

"Wow, Marinette, even when you're trying to be heroic, you're such a klutz." Chloe flicked back her ponytail. "You should have just waited for the professionals to show up."

Marinette knew this was the sort of reaction she should be hoping for, but Chloe's words still made her fume. She opened her mouth to retort, and-

"No, Chloe, I agree with Marinette," said Adrien. "You can't always wait for someone to come save you. Besides," he said, turning to address Marinette, "I thought what you did was really awesome."

-and Marinette melted. "Not as awesome as you," she murmured.

"What?"

"Uh, nothing! You-thank, wow!"

When Adrien left, it was with the conviction that there was only one girl in Paris with Ladybug's bravery and Chat's goofy grin.

 **))o((**

 **A/N: In case you were curious, the monster's name is Sass-squash ;D**

 **This was my first miraculous!Fanfic, and also a different style of writing than I usually do, so I hope you enjoyed it! Please tell me if anything was confusing ^^'**


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